Why do Supposedly Good Players Chase Bad Ones Away?

by Brad LaidmanTwo
Plus Two Magazine, Vol. 14, No. 5

I’ve seen supposedly good players chase away dead money over minor rules infractions or bad play so many times and it just doesn’t make sense. When I see a player without a clue, I don’t care if they break every rule in the house. They are dead money. Yet time and again, I’ve seen players inevitably give them grief and chase that free cash away.

I sat down around midnight to play 1-3 no-limit hold ‘em in Cleveland at a table that only had six players. The dealer, who I knew, looked at me, rolled her eyes and said, “Wait until you see this; it’s not going to last very long.”

One kid, who you would immediately label upon first sight as “internet mogul” had about $1,000 in front of him, and I can immediately tell that he is trying to push the table around, so I avoid him.

There is a rural mother and son there, and the mom is pretty obviously intoxicated and nursing something like $80. She clearly has no idea what she is doing and has to ask her son what to do on every single decision. She doesn’t know how to put her blinds out. She can’t figure out what has happened when someone raises to $15. They aren’t colluding, but he is clearly helping her with every single decision without seeing her cards. Between them, I suspect their IQ may not add up to 100 even when the mother is sober and it’s a good day.

Pretty quick, what I’m assuming has been a contentious table gets ugly. A guy raises to $15 and the rural kid calls. The flop is Q[diamond]8[spade]2[diamond]. Rural son calls a $25 continuation bet. The turn is an 8 and it’s checked around. The river completes the diamond draw and the original bettor goes all in for $60.

The rural son starts talking to him like he thinks he is Daniel Negreanu. “Did you hit your flush? Do you have diamonds?” After about three minutes of very little variation on this theme, the original raiser calls for the clock. As the floor is called, the rural son blurts out the f-word about four times. “I never call the clock on nobody!” He finally pays off the original raiser who didn’t have diamonds, but somehow Q8 for a full house, leaving the rural son with about $130 left.

Over the next fifteen minutes he’s warned about four times for his language and of course, he is still telling his mother that if she wants to call she has to put in three dollars every single hand.

The internet kid is still trying to push the table around. He makes it $15 and the rural family is in the blinds. The kid folds and his mom says to him drunkenly, “I think I has a good hand.” The son doesn’t see it and says, “Well then go all-in.” So she shoves for about $60.

The dealer doesn’t hear any of this go down because she has been explaining some inane casino promotion to another player for the past fifteen minutes. Meanwhile, the internet kid with the huge stack immediately demands that the floor be called because the rural family is colluding. It’s clear he can’t call.

The floor comes to the table for like the fourth time since I’ve been there, which has only been about two downs and the internet kid demands that mom’s hand be called dead and he get his $15 back. Did I mention that it’s clear that he can’t call?

The floor arrives and warns drunken mom. The dealer can’t help because she didn’t see or hear what happened. After about ten minutes of arguing over his $15, and being told they’ve been warned and there is nothing else we can do about it, he finally, angrily throws his cards away with attitude exposing the 4[club]. I can’t imagine any casino in the world would call her hand dead. She never showed her son her cards. I’m not even sure if any casino would call her hand dead had she showed her son her holding.

In the next fifteen minutes, the internet kid keeps arguing with the floor. Eventually, there are three floor people there. While this is going on it becomes clear that the mother is too intoxicated to be allowed play even after her son switches seats and boasts “I can’t collude from here.” After a couple more hands of arguing and the mother’s slow clueless play, the rural family is asked (made) to leave by the casino.

The son argues that he didn’t do “nothing” and that they’ve driven hours to be there. Mom meanwhile maintains that she isn’t “intoxercated” and even if she is, the casino served her the drinks she only imbibed them. They are finally escorted out. Twenty minutes later the internet kid is still arguing with the floor away from the table insisting that the head of the casino be called because someone owes him $15.

Neither mother nor son had much money on the table, so I wasn’t that upset, but had they, I would have been incensed. It’s foolish to chase dead money away from the table. You are there to get along and take that money away from them. Personally, I would have let them pool their cards together every hand; that’s how bad they were. Why do players do this?

A few nights earlier, I played at a table who handled perhaps the worst player I’ve ever seen perfectly. It was after 2am, when a young kid had the action folded to him on the button where he shoved for about $200 into the $4 in blinds. I can’t imagine a situation where this ever makes sense, but of course the big blind had QQ and at showdown the kid turned over 72o.

The kid returned with another $200 and in the exact same position pushed all his money in with 73o and got snapped off by KK. I asked somebody whether he was drunk and was told by a regular. “No he just always plays that way.”

He reloads again for $200 and again puts it all-in from the button into just the blinds with 73o and proceeds to double up against a guy who calls him with AQs when he someone flops trip 7s.

Did the loser go off on him? No, he just silently went on to the next hand, and that’s exactly what you are supposed to do. Yet I’ve seen tons of players that would have berated him endlessly for his stupid play and chased him away from the table.

For the next hour, every decision at the table was dictated by whether or not this kid had yet to act. Players were limping with kings when he was in position. I checked a full house to him on the river. It was clear he was going to do something stupid and the whole table knew to just wait for it. They also knew that they couldn’t raise with marginal hands that wouldn’t be able to call his shoves even if they knew he was doing it with nothing nearly every single time.

After doubling up and stealing a few pots, he was up to around $600 when a new guy came to the table with about $200. It wasn’t long before the crazy player shoved his whole stack into a $40 pot on a King-high flop of all clubs. Not having been there to see the idiocy, the new player went into the tank forever and finally called with the second nuts. The kid had a King with no kicker and no club.

Eventually, he again shoved from the button to the blinds for $250 and got his T9o stacked by A7o after which he finally left, having easily dropped a grand.

I don’t care how solid your knowledge of the game is, how well you know position, how well you can calculate pot odds, or how good you are at reading people, if you chase dead money away from the table by berating them over bad play or minor rules infractions, you are not a good poker player.